March 31, 2017

On Monday, April 3, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts will celebrate the 2017 NEA Jazz Masters at an all-star concert featuring music from their careers to tell the story of their lives.

The event will be moderated by Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran, who said in a statement:

This will be another special celebration for people who have been integral to the ever evolving stage of jazz. From the journalist, to the innovator, each of the honorees has demonstrated a timeless devotion to jazz ethics. Each honoree arrives at the music from a different avenue and helps focus the audience’s vision of as the music continues to evolve. Kudos to the NEA for continuing to honor artists who have devoted their livelihoods to contributing to the cultural fabric of America.

The free concert is “sold out.” You can view a live-stream of the event beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET at arts.gov, Kennedy-Center.org and NPR.org/Music. The concert will be broadcast live on SiriusXM Channel 67, Real Jazz.

On March 23, the Apollo Theater, where Ella made her debut on an Amateur Night in 1934, is hosting “Ella! A Centennial Celebration.” The community event features a panel discussion and musical reflection by the author and star of “Me & Ella,” Andrea Frierson, and her trio.

March 13, 2017

Last month, Tom Perez was elected the first Latino chair of the Democratic National Committee. In remarks to the International Association of Fire Fighters, Perez acknowledged the party has work to do:

I understand that one of the basic pillars and adages of politics and of life is often, “What have you done for me lately? What do you stand for today?”

Democrats stand for illegal immigration. In a statement following his election, Perez said fighting President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is a high priority:

The Democratic National Committee will fight back by (shining) a spotlight on the real faces of those impacted by Donald Trump's cruel mass deportations. We will not allow this administration keep their stories in the dark.

The DNC’s program, “Faces of Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan,” Latino Victory Fund whose tagline is: We are the future. Latinos may be the Democrats’ future but African Americans are asking: What have you done for me lately?

In a post-election survey for the Congressional Black Caucus, pollster Cornell Belcher found that African Americans feel they are being taken for granted.

African Americans are the Democratic Party’s most loyal voters and they should be treated as such. The results of this survey are clear marching orders for the Congressional Black Caucus — African Americans want Democrats to stop using the same old playbook and to make substantive progress on the issues that affect their communities.

African Americans muted their opposition to illegal immigration while President Obama was in office. But the Age of Obama is over.

The fear of criticism keeps most people from speaking out. African Americans’ absence from “A Day Without Immigrants” protests speaks volumes about how they feel. A recent Pew Research Center poll found a 14 percent approval rating for President Trump. With ± 2.9 percent margin of error and 7 percent refusing to say, Trump’s approval rating among African Americans’ could be as high as 20 percent.

The Democratic Party must face the reality that African Americans are not their Negroes.

March 06, 2017

Two years ago on this day I launched All That Philly Jazz, a public history project that is telling the story of Philadelphia’s rich jazz legacy.

In documenting the places where jazz history unfolded, I also want to contextualize the impact of jazz musicians and the jazz culture. Fact is, the jazz culture was about “intersectionality” before the term was coined. As Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron notes in her column, “Ridge Avenue’s last standing jazz club,” gay performers such as the “Sepia Gloria Swanson” were an integral part of the scene.

In a piece for PlanPhilly, I wrote about why historic preservation matters:

1409 Lombard Street helps tell the story of artistic greats like Lady Day, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and McCoy Tyner. It also tells the story of disruption and defiance. In remarks to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said jazz is “triumphant music.” If walls could talk, they would tell how the jazz culture broke down social barriers. The first racially integrated nightspot in Center City was a jazz club, the Downbeat. For the first time, blacks and whites mixed on an equal basis. Jazz musicians created a cultural identity that was “a steppingstone” to the Civil Rights Movement.

At its core, historic preservation is about storytelling. The question then becomes: Who decides what gets saved and whose story gets told? The built environment reflects racial inequalities. Given African Americans’ socioeconomic status, few of the buildings associated with black history meet preservation standards regarding architectural significance. Although unadorned, they are places that tell a more complete American story. The stories of faith, resistance, and triumph are relevant to today’s social justice activists.